Motherhood seems to be a no-win battle: however you decide to do (or not do) it, someone’s going to be criticizing you.

You went to too great lengths trying to conceive. You didn’t go to great enough lengths. You had the baby too young. You should have kept the baby even though you were young. You shouldn’t have waited so long to try and have a baby.

You’re a too involved mother. You’re not involved enough because you let your child play on the playground alone.

It never ends.

It strikes me that while all this judgment goes on, the options available to women become fewer and fewer.

Women have less access to birth control, health care, reproductive education, and postpartum support. So we give women less information about their bodies and reproduction, less control over their bodies, and less support during and after pregnancy—and then we criticize them fiercely for whatever they end up doing.

Celeste Ng,
“Little Fires Everywhere”